April 18, 2010 Pass It On: Personal Archiving Day at the Library of Congress on May 10

Memories should last a lifetime and be passed on to future generations. Advice on how to safeguard precious digital and traditional photos, documents, recordings and more will be presented at Personal Archiving Day at the Library of Congress.

Library staff will discuss practical strategies for preserving personal collections from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday, May 10, in the Mumford Room on the sixth floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. The event is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations are needed.

The Library's preservation experts will talk directly with individuals about managing their materials in all formats -- everything from e-mail to home movies to digital photographs and recorded sound. For security reasons, visitors are asked not to bring their collection materials to the Library; no appraisals will be provided. For information about visiting the Library, go to www.loc.gov/visit/.

Pass It On: Personal Archiving Day at the Library of Congress celebrates the first national Preservation Week (May 9-15), www.ala.org/preservationweek/ External. It is sponsored by Library of Congress, the American Library Association (ALA), the Institute for Museum and Library Services and partner organizations. This joint initiative highlights libraries and other collecting institutions as good sources of preservation information.

The Library of Congress' Personal Archiving Day is co-sponsored by the Library's Office of Strategic Initiatives and Library Services.

"I am eager for the Library to work with the public in this area," said Laura Campbell, associate librarian for Strategic Initiatives. "Many individuals have important personal digital information, and we hope this event will provide practical advice about saving it for the future. In addition to meeting with people directly, we are also using the web and social media as a way to reach interested parties."

Deanna Marcum, associate librarian for Library Services, said "Partnering with ALA for the first national collections Preservation Week serves the Library's mission by sharing information and increasing public awareness of preservation's importance. The Library of Congress' Library Services is pleased to collaborate in this effort to reach beyond the staff of our libraries and other cultural heritage collections, and we look forward to its future."

To learn more and to sign up for free digital preservation updates, visit www.digitalpreservation.gov/news/events/presweek2010/.

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world, with nearly 145 million items in various languages, disciplines and formats. The Library serves the U.S. Congress and the nation both on-site, in its reading rooms on Capitol Hill, and through its award-winning website at www.loc.gov. Many of the Library's rich resources and treasures may also be accessed via interactive exhibitions on a personalized website at myLOC.gov.

The Office of Strategic Initiatives, National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, www.digitalpreservation.gov, is pursuing a national strategy to collect, preserve and make available significant digital content, especially information that is created in digital form only, for current and future generations.